I found this paper through Google Scholar searching on the keywords “college project agile.” I selected this paper even though it was not related to computer science as I was interested in the perspective from another discipline.
This paper is a case study on how Agile methods were applied to a grant writing course, as well as some ideas about how they can be used more broadly in technical and professional communication programs.
There are a few key takeaways for this paper. First was that I needed to challenge my assumption about Agile and Scrum being specific to software development. The second was that the history of Agile has a lot of useful information itself about the “why” of Agile, which is knowledge that could be incorporated within the website to educate students. Also, Scrum sprints are not necessarily limited to having production-ready code. A sprint could result in production-ready documentation. Finally, the paper's tips section has ideas I haven’t seen in my research regarding Agile implementations that should be revisited after this research phase and used during implementation.
By practicing both more traditional and new Agile strategies in the classroom, students may be better prepared for responsibilities that they will likely have in any future work environment, especially given the growing appreciation for Agile’s focus on self-organizing cross-functional teams, emergent planning, and iterative progress toward larger goals. -p. 114
Scrum and Agile are not magic bullets for improving collaboration between students or between professionals in industry. -p. 124
In a survey conducted the following semester for a separate study, 91% of the students reported that the structure of the course helped them learn to collaborate more successfully whereas only 45% said the same about the structure of group projects in other classes.